Waxahatchee Online

Mary

Once upon a time, in 2016, I fell for Waxahatchee. I had just moved to NYC and was 22 and lonely. I heard ‘Blue Pt. 2’ and ‘You’re Damaged’ off her second album ‘Cerulean Salt’ and felt like a part of me, a part buried in shame, was seen. My experience with depression and the confusion of unrequited-love and loneliness weren’t mine alone. And, in Waxahatchee’s light - unapologetically vulnerable and humbly eloquent - she showed an ability to unlock dark thoughts and turn them into music. 

Cut to March of this year, 2020, Waxahatchee released her 5th album, ‘Saint Cloud’ under (what I assume was) the gigantic storm cloud of a canceled international tour and separation from her new band, Bonny Doon. But, in the face of this disappointment, Waxahatchee partnered with a virtual music venue (noonchorus) to play each of her 5 albums in their acoustic form over 5 weeks. The ticket sales went towards her band and crew (now without work) and she spent each week talking about and raising money for BLM via a virtual tip jar.

It struck me that the songs that she “never plays” from her early albums were her best, at least acoustically. In her track titled ‘Rose (1956)’( from her first album ‘American Weekend’), she makes an entire chorus of out the line "you were married at fifteen”. The song captures so simply the essence of a modern liberal Alabama girl looking back two generations in total bewilderment. But the song truly marginalized by the musician, despite it speaking to a **particularly** on-point emotion of mine, was the aforementioned song ‘You’re Damaged’. She can make self-pity cool!  She said her boyfriend, Kevin Morby called it emo. With the line “god's buried under your damaged wonder”, its hard to argue otherwise. Although the artist seems to have spiritually moved on, musically this song belongs in her cannon. 

Her best performance was her third album ‘Ivy Tripp’, hitting that sweet spot because she could still remember and emotionally channel the songs but they were early enough to be acoustically applicable. In my notes I wrote “she can kinda use her voice like a flute to go with her more deep rugged sound.” This is especially true with her new album, ‘Saint Cloud’, my favorite track being ‘Fire’. Unfortunately, when performed acoustically, the album doesn’t pack a punch. That being said, it wasn’t meant to. I’m chalking it up as part of my on-going Waxahatchee journey and looking forward to her next irl tour.